Member Avatar for beforetheyknew

Hi guys, I'm quite unsure of what i'm doing here and could use some guidance. I've searched but haven't found any links that were focused enough. My objective is to connect my application to a database for the first time. I've never done this before so it's essentially a learning exercise.

Within visual studio i've followed the "Connect to database" in the Tools tab and followed the connection wizard. My understanding is i need to connect to my local sql server (this may be incorrect) and i cant find it. I'm not sure how to even get started, what do i need to download in order to create a database on my laptop? i guessed my sql, but i'm not sure what would be recommended -

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

Where do i go from here?

Edited by beforetheyknew
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by wen_cai
Member Avatar for wen_cai

I am guessing you have already downloaded and install mysql on your computer. If you want to just display/access your database from Microsoft Visual Studio you can do the following steps:

1) Click on view, scroll to server explorer and click that. (Alt/shortcut: Press ctrl+w+l together to get it to open)
2) Right click your data connection and select add connection.
3) Change your datasource to mysql and just follow the wizard,

It is that easy. Though I doubt many industry will be using mysql these days,

Member Avatar for beforetheyknew

Thanks, where i'm quite unsure is basically everything before the actual starting to code with vb.net using the database. What do you reccomend i dl and use as a database if not mysql? (haven't dled anything yet).

Member Avatar for Begginnerdev

You have SQL Server 2012 Express (Free from Microsoft's Website)

You have Oracle(Some free versions, haven't worked with.)

Member Avatar for wen_cai

Microsoft works well with SQL Server so that and it is mostly used in industry. The express version is has limited function but if you are just using for learning purpose I think it would surffice. If you are planning to learn linq to sql which only work with Microsoft SQL Server then your only choice is Microsoft SQL Server. However, linq to sql will be removed in favor of entity framework which work better than linq to sql and does not have the databse restriction.

Those database mention by Begginnerdev are alright so does MySql. Whichever you choose, choose one that you are comfortable with.

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